


Janus lives

by MisterHix



Category: Scrolls of the Ancients
Genre: watevs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:01:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24762760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterHix/pseuds/MisterHix
Summary: Rewriting something to suit my sensibilities.Scrolls of the Ancients.Basically a what if Janus was better and the whole plot was better and it all gets derailed hard from there.Not a bit sorry.
Kudos: 1





	Janus lives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [those who I suffered with.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=those+who+I+suffered+with.).



"Where did they come from?"  
Janus asked, arching his head back from the window after witnessing a small massacre take place in the city street where he was planning on conducting an innocent murder spree.  
Griselda spoke softly.  
"They look like wizards to me."  
"Wizards? But aren't they all dead?"  
"Apparently not!" She replied pointing her finger at the blue bolt of energy that flew across the window and struck a piece of masonry.  
Letting out a huff he moved around the back of the shop and into an alley, people rushed back but he managed to make his way to the Wizards blind side and draw forth his balls.  
The crowd was too thick here, he could not get a clear shot so resigned to use his knife. The long stiletto slipped out of its sheath with a smooth lyrical motion that was so familiar to Janus his eyes nearly rolled back in anticipation. Stalking his prey like a cat through the throng he came closer and closer until he could smell the mans perfumed robes.  
Quick as a whip the wizard had fallen into Janus's embrace and was now feeling the long thin blade stroke lovingly at the inside of his right lung while his other hand held the mans throat the stifle any cry of pain and keep the blade in.  
"Hello!" He teased his victim with sadistic glee as the body reached out to a young man in the crowd who was... holding down the shopkeeper.  
"Now that's interesting, a friend of yours?"  
The man's mouth frothed red and Janus finally let him go after the agonizing seconds that brought about his passing. Janus savoured the look in his eyes. It spoke of regret and specifically things left unsaid.  
It was times like this Janus truly valued his line of work.  
"We must go!" Griselda called to him from back down the alley.  
"NO!" Came the cry from the young man, a voice filled with anger and grief exploded from a body that was digging through the people towards them. It was such a pity the crowd was there Janus thought as he idly fondled his balls. Next to fear, anger was the next best emotional state to kill someone in.  
He gave the young man a salute and dropped the wizard before turning back down the alley and joining Griselda.  
"Grab the scroll, I'll take care of the dramatic one."  
Griselda paused for a moment only to address the irony of the statement before speaking.  
"Do you know who that is?"  
Janus was already breaking into a cackling run.  
"Does it matter?" he answered leaving Griselda mumbling to herself as she headed back into the shop. If she was going to grab the scroll she needed to get it off the boy. Thankfully she was not helpless, though her power was not as overt as the wizards had been, her dagger was on hand.

Back in the alley Janus had begun to climb to the window of a short building. Dangling like a chimp from one arm he playfully scanned the crowd for the angry young man who would no doubt be chasing him. He was not hard to spot, what with all his cursing and proclamations of revenge.  
Janus kept climbing and soon reached the top with enough time to gather his breath before his pursuer might catch him. It was then that he noticed something flying above him.  
"What in the world?" He exclaimed as the green winged creature flew down in a swooping dive at him. Janus only avoided it by falling completely prone in such a way as to feel clumsy.  
Minions, who had Minions in this day and age? He thought to himself as he stood and removed his balls from his belt, beginning to whip them into action as the Minion banked through the sky for another pass. Janus waited and smiled as he released the bolas at the oncoming target, watching with satisfaction as they tangled the monsters wings and it crashed hard into the side of the building before falling it a mad scramble to the street below.  
"YOU BASTARD!" He heard from behind him and turning he saw the young man again.  
"Oh, it's you." He said offhanded and once more raised his knife from its scabbard, he had already wiped the wizards blood from it as it was forming into the symbol of Vigorous magic but it still had some of the smell.  
He liked that.  
"I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY FRIEND!" The man spat as he pointed his sword as Janus.  
"Or you're going to talk about it some more!" Janus retorted leaping at the young man, he had the advantage of his anger and he was not going to give his enemy the opportunity to calm down.  
They clashed blades in arcs of flashing steel at first but as the seconds turned into a minutes the motions became faster and less telegraphed, small precise jabs and parries caused their weapons to dart between them in displays of focused accuracy.  
The man was good, perhaps even better than he was Janus admitted to himself with a grin as he prepared to tip the scales ever further in his favour.  
"I wonder what it was he never said to you."  
The young man's look of concentrated rage faded for the briefest moment and it was enough for Janus's blade to penetrate his defenses and sink deep into his belly.  
"Oh, look at you." Janus could not help himself as he drew in closer to savour the moment.  
"You failed!"  
The young man was clearly struggling to raise his blade, something about it reminded Janus of when he let the slave make a break for the docks, there was too much certainty in the motion, slow as it was.  
A TRAP. The blade extended towards his face much farther than he could have predicted and struck him, knocking him down and away from the young man, his knife still in the strangers belly.  
"Agh!" he cried out, holding his face as blood stained through his coloured gloves and found the rooftop. His remaining eye searched frantically for his enemy and found him slumped motionless on the ground with a pool of blue blood about him.  
Blue blood, it glowed as Wulgar's had, which could only mean one thing.  
"Fffffuck!"  
Janus turned to make good his escape as the full revelation of the situation hit him.  
The fucking king, he just stabbed the king in his belly. Wulgar wanted that honour for himself. Still, securing the scroll would be enough to hold his wrath and with any luck Griselda already had it.  
A quick look over the edge even with one good eye told him that it was otherwise.  
The street below was cleared, the square emptied and now a crying woman stood over the dead wizard with Griselda held by Minions. The shopkeeper was gone and the children were nowhere to be seen.  
Sometimes, but not often, he did think less conspicuous clothes might be in order as one of the Minions had no trouble in calling out his presence to the woman.  
Not one to miss an opportunity he managed a gesture of acknowledgment in the form of an elaborate wave of his free hand while the other kept holding his damaged eye in its socket.  
It was then he noticed the blood on his knife hand, blue and still glowing as it formed tiny patterns he did not know.  
The whole lot of them looked stunned by this but it was the woman's reaction that caused him panic.  
She was mouth agap as her eyes, still pouring tears, shone with a flaming blue light and her hair began to move though no wind touched it.  
He had to run, he had to flee and move while he still could.  
Turning tail he abandoned Griselda to her fate and the wrath of the Witch as he began to clamber down the skylight of the building, taking as much cover as he could from the terrifying woman.  
A moment later he was in the streets again, without the scroll and without Griselda or his left eye but he was alive and knew of something that was sure to grab the attention of both Krassus and Wulgar.  
The woman, he had seen anything like it. Even Wulgar had needed to be indoctrinated to the Vagaries but this woman was something else and as if more proof was needed than the instinct that had kept him alive all his blood soaked life the building he had exited only a few seconds ago came crashing down as if it was a house of cards. There was no crumble of rubble though, no sound to accompany the billowing dust and stray splinters that pelted his back as he ran, only the womans scream, silent no more, and unleashed in terrible, beautiful destructive force.  
He smiled at how similar it was to the room in the Citadel.

Shailiha could not begin to progress the emotions she felt at the moment she saw Tristan's tell-tale glowing blood on the arm of the masked man. The Minions gave chase and had not returned. Their legendary loyalty to Tristan was as unbroken as ever but it did not help her that they had all taken off and left her with the witch.  
Faegan was dead and Tristan was gone. Her heart was breaking as she wept bitter tears in the empty square.  
"You."  
It was the witch who spoke. Shailiha glared at her and made an attempt to compose herself, not wanting to show any more weakness to her enemy.  
"There's no need for that child. I am not your enemy." Griselda offered kindly.  
"Horse feathers, you killed my brother, my friend."  
"No, not I." Griselda pleaded "Janus killed them. It was Janus to did all this." She gestured at the empty square and Faegan's corpse. "But you did this!" she added pointing at the ruined building. "And that's not nothing."  
"I..." Words failed Shailiha as she looked at the pile of rubble before her. She had been told she was potent with magic and even helped save the Gnome village but she had bot exercised her power so much before. It terrified her as only the scope of what one may truly be capable of can.  
"You have more power than you know but it's dangerous, raw." Griselda told her as she stood up and walked to the edge of the rubble in awe at the show of force.  
Something moved and she startled, letting out a gasp as she backed away.  
"What is it?" Shailiha asked, standing next to the witch.  
"Something moved, there!" She pointed as the shifting dust upset itself again and in Shaihila's mind a single thought filled her with purpose.  
"TRISTAN!" her voice cried out as she began to scale the rubble to try and uncover the source of the motion. Her hands bit deep into the dirt and broken brickwork as she hauled piece after piece away, her breathing becoming heavy as fear mingled with hope welled within her chest.  
After what seemed like an age of digging she finally saw him, Tristan and he was breathing, barely so but still alive.  
"Oh thank goodness!" Shailiha blurted before continuing to dig to free the rest of her brother.  
"Help me." She called to the other woman.  
"Why?" She replied.  
"What? He's alive, my brother is alive and he is your King, you must help him."  
The witch closed her eyes and shook her head.  
"You do not need my help. Look around you. You have moved this building and now you need my help to move a few bits of stone?"  
Shailiha looked at her, parsing the meaning of her words as even now her eyes betrayed her fear.  
"The Vigors do not respect fear. They respect blood and power, you have both. Use them!"  
The witch said, striking the heel of her staff off the cobbles as she did. Shailiha tried to resolve herself, mustered her courage and thought about Tristan.  
Closing her eyes she began to call upon the innate power of her blood to channel the will to move the objects keeping him buried.  
She could feel them move, slowly at first but then faster as they whizzed about her and then she felt Tristan move, connected with him through magic. It was unlike anything she had ever felt, the connection was profound and so strong.  
As he was lain down she could feel the chill of the cobbles and when she opened her eyes he was exactly where she wanted him to be. Her mind barely had time to register the significance of her actions before she made her way over to him and knelt beside him. There was a dagger in his belly and his vibrant blue blood was spilling everywhere.  
"You see what you can do?" Griselda stated though Shailiha had only one thought as she turned to the witch.  
"HELP HIM!"  
Griselda knelt down and prepared to administer what aid she could.  
"I will. But you must come away with me and be my pupil in magic."  
Shailiha was almost dumbstruck by this proposition. "You cannot be serious."  
"But I am child. Dark days are upon us and the time has come to set right great evils of the past. Your Wizards have failed to protect the King, train him and you as they know you should be."  
Shailiha's mouth automatically began to mouth the many excuses she had been fed for years.  
"But they don't know what will happen, it's dangerous!"  
"A pox on those old fools." Griselda spat back as she gestured to the collapsed masonry that was once a building "THAT is dangerous, crossing swords with Janus is dangerous and Wulgar is more dangerous then he. He has Krassus's magic and knowledge to empower him and more, his heir with a Daughter of the pure bloodline will be stronger still."  
Shailiha looked at Tristan and wiped the dust of his cheek as she thought about the terrible world to come if they failed.  
"Why, why would you want me to stop Wulgar?"  
The witch gave her a hard look before continuing as if she was mulling over giving a false answer.  
"I would see the Wizards fall and their lines broken but I am no fool. Subjugation is subjugation be it by the Vigors or the Vagaries and I have had my fill of it. Come with me and I will train you, you will learn of both and then you will be able to stop Wulgar and end the Wizards regime and put to rights their shameful misdeeds."  
It was not hard to see that the Wizards had made great errors in the past and try as they might be to undo what they had done if even half of what the witch was speaking was true then it may already be too late.  
Again she looked at Tristan before answering.  
"So be it."


End file.
